J: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You don't want the truth, because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man! I would rather you just said "thank you", and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to!

in our own communityour existence as a distinct communityseems to be drawing to a closeour position may be comparedto a solitary tree in an open spacewhere all the forest trees around have been prostratedby a furious tornado”

we have become a community of prophetsrebuking the systemand speaking hope and possibility into situationsof apparent impossibility

and this is what we speak and live

with our words our weapons

our wordslike bolts of lightning in a dark nightlighting our wayour wordslike tears like rain like cries like hail from our heartsfeeling with each other in our suffering for each otherour wordsangry as thunder exploding in the ears of thosewho would ignore or dismiss or inflict upon uswhat they in their ignorance think is best for usour words defiant as streetkids in a cop’s faceour wordsbrilliant and beautiful as the rainbow I sawspanning our streetsour wordsof resistance and comfort and commitmentlike mountainsour wordsprophetic on behalf of the hard-pressed poor

for as one prophet said“when all is dark the murderer leaves his bedto kill the poor and oppressed”

our wordsto block the murderers’ paths

our words and our presence createa strange and profound unityoutraged at each otherdisappointing each othermisinterpreting each otherreacting against each otherresenting each otherunhealed wounds dividing uswhen to be about unityis to be caught in a crossfireof conflicting ambitions understandings and perspectives

strung-out and dissipatedrunning on constant low grade burn-out fevermeetings and meetings and meetingsa dozen fronts to fight at the same timedeal with one and a dozen more appearanother dehumanizing media story

a hundred needs crying out all at oncea hundred individuals with emergencies crying for a responsesirens and sirens and sirensconstruction noiseautomobile mayhema disabled populationa poor and ill populationcriminalizedup against globalizationpressure cooker emotional atmosphereexcruciating questions and dilemmasso much happens so fast

how much compromise?how to organize?where to fight?

more bodies on the sidewalks and in the alloys and parksspace and places for poor people shrinkingand the ambiguities of advocacythe rumoursthe well-founded paranoiasthe political manipulationsexploitations confusions deliberate obfuscationsand seductions of the gentrification systemthe backroom deals somewhere elsein office towers and government officesmeetings and more meetingsand yetbeneath the ostensible reasonfor attending another goddamned meetingis that which truly holds us togetherholds and has held every real community together

taking on the consequences of a system producingmore woundedmore damagedmore excludedmore refugeesmore unemployed and never-to-be-employed

words and courage and love and hope and unityif only we hadthe means for self-determinationinstead

sounds familiar literal

and that’s just itthe necessity for heedingthe prophetic blast and rallying cry

we resistperson by personsquare foot by square footroom by roombuilding by buildingblock by block

we resistbecause we are a community

we are all that stands between our vast community of thousandsand those who would

replace it with greedthe singular leadership we have herewhere it is said we lacka single dynamic individual leaderbut we havethe most powerful leader there isthe most effective leader we can havein this grave situationour communityour community itselfhas emerged as our leader

and it is to our credit that this is sofor it is from ourprophetic courageous conflictual and loving unitythat our communityraises shitand resists.